Between You And I
by Illyriarocks
Summary: Three years after Nora and Mary Louise fled from Mystic Falls in the aftermath of Rayna's resurgence, they have settled in New Orleans and have decided to start a family. But with the ominous threat of the huntress constantly hanging over their heads, will they be able to find the peaceful life they so crave?
1. Prologue

Three years. It had been three long years since Nora and Mary Louise had fled from Mystic Falls and the seemingly implacable Rayna Cruz. Three years since the pair had forsaken what little they knew of the 21st century to strike out on their own. As Nora had once put it, "All we have now is each other." But that was about to change.

The blonde's head rested on Nora's lap at a bus stop, reading _Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie_ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

"I want a baby," Mary Louise perked up, looking at Nora from behind her book.

"You do?"

"I do. With you."

"Well, we haven't even been able to find proper housing yet, my love. We're still fairly nomadic. But I see your point. A baby would bring some stability to our lives. We have a meeting with a real estate agent tomorrow. Can we pick up this conversation after we decide on that?"

"Of course," Mary Louise smiled, and merrily returned to her reading as Nora gently stroked her blonde locks.


	2. This Is My House, This Is My Home

The house hunting itself wasn't nearly as bad as they thought it would be. The bad part was the whiny nasality of their real estate agent's voice.

"And this one is-" she droned on in that horrid monotone the pair had come to expect from this modern era.

"Sold! We love it!" Nora clapped after no more than five minutes in the house. Their third today and only their fourth overall.

"Perfect! I'll have the papers to you ASAP!"

With that, the agent left and the women were left in peace. Nora soon found the living room and plopped down on the couch, her blonde lover soon following her. Mary-Louise rested her head on Nora's shoulder and Nora stroked the blonde's hair.

"I love you, Nora Hildegard," Mary-Lou smiled.

"I love you, Mary-Louise Fairchild. Now what were you saying earlier?"

"I want us to have a baby, Nora. It was always something denied us for one reason or other, but now… the advances in science and medicine are truly astounding. I think we could do it."

"You've only ever mentioned this once before, my love…" Nora was hesitant, uncertain to say the least. How would this come to be? Would it even work?

"They call it in-vitro fertilization," Mary-Lou explained. "Basically, we go to a fertility clinic and they select this, from what I understand, randomized container of a man's sperm and then fertilize one of my eggs with said sperm. It seems rather easy, don't you think?"

"Mary-Lou… we're vampires," Nora cautioned, not wanting her love's hopes to ascend to too much of a height. "I don't know if such a thing could happen."

They continued discussing the issue at length for some time.

"We're also half-witch. We were born witches, my darling. It will take, you'll see. Besides, between you and I, nothing is impossible!" She pressed her lips against Nora's cheek and sped up to the bedroom, laughing. Nora was about to follow, having noticed the time had gotten away from them, when the doorbell rang. The nasal-voiced real estate agent was at the door.

"My love, come down!"

Mary-Louise was with Nora in a heartbeat. They took an hour or so to rigorously read and reread the documents before signing the contract. The agent didn't leave fast enough for either of them, and the women shared a hearty laugh when she finally did leave.

"Oh my god, her voice," Mary-Lou cackled.

"Come on," Nora pulled the blonde toward the staircase. "Let's break in our new home, hmm?"

"Let's," Mary-Louise gave her brunette companion a mischievous grin before following her upstairs. Finding a room to their liking, the pair didn't sleep until dawn the next day… much to the annoyance of their new neighbors.

"God, you're such a screamer," Mary-Lou whispered in the dark after they were finally finished.


	3. Babies & Bathwater

The fertility specialist's office was "abysmally quiet and horridly sterile", Mary Louise would later note in her pregnancy diary. Nora, on the other hand, appreciated the professional atmosphere and the relative safety of the environment. No better place for any prospective offspring of theirs to be born.

"You still haven't explained to me how this is going to work, Mar," Nora complained.

In truth, she wasn't ungrateful for the opportunity of motherhood. No, she was jubilant on the inside at the mere possibility! What concerned Nora's mind and heart was the very real probability that Mary-Louise was getting her hopes up, seduced by the all-too-often empty promises of modern technology, and how hurt she would be when her dream died in this very room. Fifteen minutes in Dr. Carver's office and they were still waiting on the woman.

At 4:15, Carver finally entered her office and hastily sat down. "I am very sorry. I was held up with your tests. I do have good news, so don't be too alarmed," she added when she saw the blonde's face drop.

"W-What is the news, doctor?" Mary-Louise's voice was small, hesitant, like a young child worried they were about to be told they had been bad.

Eons passed, it seemed, in that small room. Each tick of the second hand a brief infinity.

"Your eggs are viable, Mrs. Fairchild. Congratulations."

Mary-Lou instantaneously broke into a huge grin, as if the sun had come out, but then her hopes came crashing down in the next instant.

"Not yours, Mary-Louise. Your wife's. Nora's eggs are healthy and viable."

"Oh…" both young women said at once.

"But the good news is that, if Mary-Louise is the one who had wanted to carry, we can always fertilize one of Nora's eggs and implant that pre-embryo into Mary-Louise's uterus. Unless, Nora would like to-"

"No! That's fine," Nora blurted out, cutting the physician off.

"Well, then, let us go to work!" Dr. Carver smiled and practically sprung from her chair. "I do love helping families in need," she muttered as she led the spouses to their destiny.

The rest was relatively simple: a sperm sample was used to fertilize several of Nora's eggs and one was implanted inside the perky blonde. The process itself took up not as much time as Mary-Louise expected, almost supernaturally short, such was the marvel of modern medicine, but it was the drive home that felt supernaturally long.

The silence in the air between them, the tension, could be sliced with a knife.

"Why did you interrupt Dr. Carver when she suggested you carry the baby in the event I could not, or didn't want to?"

Nora was not normally one to be at a loss for words. This question, however, was the first exception to that rule.

"Mary-Lou, I-"

"Do you even want this baby? You know how much I've always wanted to be a mother, Nora! Huh? Do you even want to have children with me? It was always denied me for one reason or other. All the suitors Father picked out for me were horrible and both my parents knew it. The longest of those bastards lasted maybe two weeks. Marriage was never an option for me with those cretins. I couldn't very well reproduce asexually like a damn bacterium, now could I? Then I met you, and everything was absolutely perfect, and I thought I could be complete without children. But no! A proper lady was to be wed and bred as soon as possible, those were the bloody rules. You were a poor street urchin when I found you and my parents cast me out the moment they discovered us, remember?"

"I do not require a recap of our relationship, Mary-Louise…"

"Oh! And then! Then we became vampires. Horrid abominations forced to feed from others for both nourishment and magic. Then the damn prison world, then Rayna Cruz finding us and killing Beau, then we ran like hell for quite a while, then we got married, we got bloody married, Nora! We have been wife and wife for over three years now, going on four, and I for one think it is certainly time to expand the flock."

"Mary-Louise, just let me explain…"

"Don't bother!" The statuesque blonde snapped when they got into the driveway. She turned off the car, opened the door, slammed it behind her, and ascended the porch steps to the front door. She slammed that door behind her as well. Nora, on the other hand, remained in the vehicle.

"My mother died giving birth to me." Now it was her turn for her voice to be small, frail, scared. The tears came in rivers and Nora remained in that vehicle for the better part of the next hour before turning in for the night. The women did not speak before bed as they usually did, despite Nora's attempts to apologize for her earlier, unintended offense to her wife.


	4. Nightmares & Makeups

" _OOOHHHHH!" Mary-Louise bellowed, leaning against the wall propped up by her forearms; Nora applied whatever counter-pressure she could, pressing on her_

 _wife's hips._

" _It hurts, Nora, it hurts… she is hurting me! Why won't she simply come out?" She turned to Nora and asked, delirious, her eyes dull from hours of endless contractions._

" _Shhhh," the brunette soothed, pushing her love's hair back out of her face. "It is your body, my love, working to help our sweet little Hadley to come out and meet us! You'll see!" Nora encouraged. "I know it hurts now but you'll forget all that soon enough. Just continue to breathe and all will be well, I promise you."_

" _I just want her out," the blonde complained, rubbing her belly. Nora placed both of her hands on her wife's pregnant middle, hoping to sooth her somehow. The statuesque book editor's belly had grown quite large in the months since the procedure that allowed her to conceive, so big in fact that the spouses were for a time certain Mary-Louise carried twins or triplets. 'Macrosomia,' her OBGYN had called the condition. Mary-Louise often complained that her heavily pregnant belly looked like some kind of rocket or a small mountain, jutting out from her otherwise flat front. It had been a while since Mrs. Fairchild could see her feet and oddly she was glad of it. Mary-Lou's feet were sore almost all the time and had swollen; she had no desire to look upon the latest of "unladylike things" with which her state had graced her._

 _The blonde's trip down memory lane was cut short but a great pressure that she had previously never experienced yet instantaneously recognized. Her tired eyes regained some of their earlier livelihood as she gripped Nora's shoulders firmly and evened out her breathing._

" _My love, what is it?"_

" _Uuuuaaagghhhh," Mary-Louise moaned in reply. Bracing herself against her wife, she opened her legs a bit wider and bent her knees outward, instinctively trying to give their daughter more room. "MMmmmmmhhhhnngggaahhh!"_

' _She's started pushing!' Nora thought. 'Perfect!'_

 _A few smaller pushes later and Mary-Louise was panting; her eyes never left Nora's._

" _Walk…"_

" _What?"_

" _Walk. I want to walk a little if I can. That's the whole point of having her at home, so I can do as I please…" she thought aloud, her mind focused solely on the task of expelling the infant. She absently discarded what little clothing she had retained for this long, knowing it was soon time._

" _Of course, darling," Nora smiled. "Whatever you need, whatever you-"_

" _I need her out!" Mary-Louise snapped and turned away from her wife, beginning to walk toward the door. "I'm sorry, Nora. I don't mean to be short with you. I'm just so tired."_

" _It's alright, sweetheart. Think nothing of it." The pair had been awake since shortly before daybreak and now it was almost the evening._

 _The laboring woman was nearly to the door of their bedroom when she suddenly gripped the wall and got on her knees, bowing her head and bellowing as she bore down. "GGRRREEEAAAHHHHHHH-UGHHHH! RRRMMMMMM!"_

 _Nora raced over to the dearest creature in all the world to her, cupping her wife's face in her hands. "Good! Good girl," Nora cheered. "Good, strong pushes, just like that, and she'll be out in no time."_

" _UUUUUUUUURRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHH!" Mary-Louise growled like a wild animal, a fire in her eyes. The only thing that existed now was the child inside of her and of course her own body, working to shove the child out of her. Everything else was far away and unimportant. "Ouuutttt," she groaned._

" _You're doing so wonderfully, my strong and powerful wife," Nora practically wept at the courage her wife was exhibiting._

 _Mary-Lou gripped her thighs and raised her torso up as high as she could, again braced against Nora, and bore down with all her might. Grunting, groaning, moaning._

 _What seemed to the pair like hours passed, though in reality it couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes, and there was no real change. The mother moved from the wall and collapsed against the side of the birthing pool she had first used, its water now ice-cold._

" _You can do this," Nora whispered. "I know you can."_

" _I cannot! It's too big; I can't fit it, my fairy love."_

" _Yes, you can! You can! A little more and she'll be here!"_

" _I'm sure the faces I've been making trying to push her out are just so incredibly attractive," Mary-Louise smiled._

" _Oh, don't worry," Nora smiled back. "I'm pretty sure we're getting it all on camera," she playfully nodded toward the camcorder they had set up._

 _Again, the woman's body dictated that she change positions. The blonde crawled to the side of the bed, grabbing it, and lowered herself into a deep squat, facing Nora._

" _Push… Push…" Mary-Lou instructed herself, grabbing Nora's hand as hard as she could, and continued her efforts._

" _You're doing it, you're doing it! Good girl!"_

" _AAAEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRUUUGGHHHHHRR-RRRR-RRR… RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The mother roared ferociously, pushing again and again with all her might until she felt the thing she craved the most slip free from her and into her wife's waiting arms._

" _Let me see her…"_

 _But there was no crying, nor any sound at all, from the newborn babe. The mother herself was pale, blood slicking her thighs and more of the fluid coming ever so quickly. She passed out against the side of the bed, still gripping the sheets for dear life._

" _Mary-Louise? Darling? Darling?"_

 _Nora's concerned words soon faded into nothingness and blackness…_

Nora jolted awake, sitting upright in the bed she shared with her wife. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw her wife laying next to her, her belly still as flat as it had been when they got home seven hours previously. Just a bad dream, thank God. It probably wasn't the best idea to watch those natural childbirth videos on Youtube before bed by which Mary-Lou had been fascinated. Nora lay back down and snuggled close to her beloved, wrapping her in a warm and loving embrace as Mary-Louise unconsciously nestled into Nora in turn.

The next morning, Nora prepared breakfast for the couple: eggs, bacon, milk. She wasn't one-hundred percent sure what newly-pregnant women could or could not eat so she stuck to the very basics of what she knew how to cook, which admittedly wasn't much to begin with. The other occupant of the house soon made her presence known, lingering in the hallway just outside the kitchen.

"I made us breakfast," Nora perked up.

"I see." Mary-Louise griped and sat at the far end of the table.

"Can we talk?"

"After food."

"Okay."

And so they ate in silence.

"Okay, my dear. Talk."

"Mary-Louise, I'm sorry. Alright? I just… Of course I want the baby. I really do! It's all I have ever wanted since we departed Mystic Falls and left our worries far behind us! I swear it."

"I know." ML dabbed at tears she hadn't even noticed forming. "I know. I'm just so scared something is going to happen. Rayna might find us or something could go wrong with the pregnancy or you'll bail or-"

"I would never! Never ever!"

Nora crossed to the other side of the table and hugged her wife.

"Damn hormones," Mary-Louise chuckled as Nora stroked her hair in that soothing way she did.

"I'm sorry. Are we okay, my love?"

"Yes, my little fairy. We are."

And they kissed for the first time in what seemed like years.


	5. Despair & Joy

Nora awoke one evening to find Mary-Louise lying on the floor, groaning in pain, blood coming from between her legs. Despite them both knowing what had happened, Nora strapped her wife into their yellow little Ford Fiesta and drove like mad to the nearest hospital. The blonde sobbed continuously through the trip and until the ultrasound technician came to the pair, confirming what they had already surmised. The two became much more vocal once they were left alone.

"I… I lost it…" Mary-Louise looked into Nora's eyes for some type of answer of any kind that could explain what had occurred. "I lost our little love, darling," she buried her head against Nora's chest as the brunette stroked her hair, futilely trying to escape from the world and its horrors. All Nora could do was hold her, though her tears did not yet fall. "Sssshhhhh…"

Somewhat selfishly, Nora's mind flashed relief that she would not have to worry for the next several months about her precious wife dying in childbirth, as what had come to pass during the horrendous nightmare of which she had still not told Marylou. However, she quickly banished these thoughts as she supported her devastated wife; the two wept freely together, burying themselves in the comfort of each other.

Six months later, they tried again and the procedure didn't take. Two months after that, another attempt that yielded the same result.

This time around, Mary-Louise was fortunate enough to not experience much in the way of the extreme mood swings stereotypically associated with early pregnancy, but during her first trimester she did have the chance to undergo the indescribable joys and wonders of debilitating morning sickness beginning with the fourth week. 'Hyperemesis gravidarum', as the medical community called it, which forced her to be hospitalized no less than three times. Presently, midway though her seventh week, she suffered through one such bland hospital stay in one such bland hospital bed.

Mary Louise Fairchild utterly _loathed_ hospitals for as long as she could remember. To her, hospitals were monstrous cesspools of disease and nothing more, whereas Nora looked at all the medical advancements hospitals afforded the populace.

"No child of ours, no symbol of _life_ , will be born in a place where the sick and dying congregate and I shall certainly not bear our child in some gown that someone died in yesterday," the blonde deadpanned at her wife the day they had arrived. The IV in her arm was dehumanizing enough, the gown was dehumanizing enough, everything was so dehumanizing to Marylou and she would have none of it.

"My love, what if something happens?" Nora had voiced this concern since the first hospital stay, which was then only two days. This time, the couple was already interred in the facility for three time as long.

"Are you suggesting that the pregnancy is too much trouble? Shall I abort it?"

"God, no! I would never even imply such a thing! I am concerned, my darling-"

"As am I! This child is all I have ever wanted, save you. You and this child are all I have ever needed, Nora Hildegard Fairchild. Come here," she motioned for Nora to join her on the bed. Nora happily obliged, and they spooned for the better part of that evening.

Though they had made friends in New Orleans, most notably a fellow witch by the name of Vincent Griffith, said friends only visited sparingly and for maybe five minutes at a time at most. Though the wives appreciated their respect of the couple's privacy, they couldn't help but feel somewhat detached from their new mates. They weren't witches or vampires or werewolves or even hybrids of any sort. They were simply regular people who, although most of them knew about the supernatural, could not relate to such beings. Vincent visited with flowers once or rather he sent them flowers with a precious little note of genuine concern for Mary-Louise and the child's wellbeing and wishes for improved and continuous health. The witch community wasn't fond of vampires and, well, they were half-vampire.

"This is our fourth attempt at having a child and I will not lose it again because I cannot keep anything down," the taller woman chastised herself once Nora had gone that morning to find something in the cafeteria. Mary-Louise had requested to be left alone for a while. "This child shall grow big and strong inside of me and my belly shall grow and I shall give birth to it in the comfort of our own home, with Nora by my side. Valerie, too, if she ever returns from her quest to find herself after cutting ties with the Salvatore boy."

Speak of the devil and she shall appear. A knock at the door. "Come in," the pregnant patient called and the redhead entered. Valerie rushed to her sister's side.

"Valerie!"

"Mary-Louise!"

Valerie bent down and hugged Mary-Louise tightly, a gesture the blonde returned in full.

"Nora called me but neglected to inform me as to why you are here, Marylou," Valerie's voice was a million-miles-a-minute. "Are you sick? Did the Armory find you? What's going on?" She asked upon drawing back and pulling up a chair to the blonde's bedside. They both noticed a change in her demeanor not a moment later.

There was something different about Mary-Louise Fairchild these days, Valerie felt, her heightened senses pinpointing what appeared to be the 'bum-BUM-bum-BUM' with which she was all too familiar. "Sister, you are with child? How…? When…?"

"It's complicated, I shall not bore you with the details, but isn't it miraculous? We are too have a new family, Valerie, a new hope."

Valerie's mid flashed through infinite possibilities. What will it be, vampire or witch? Human, even? How will the pregnancy affect her sister? They'd seen a vampire pregnancy with Caroline Forbes back in 2013, but that was against her will as a result of a transference spell by the Gemini Coven. What could this mean for her, for Valerie? Could she conceive as well? What kind of mothers would Nora and Marylou be? All these things and more played out in the span of a few seconds, but in that moment all Valerie could do was smile and hug her sister all the tighter.

"Darling, I am so happy for you. A child is wonderful, I could not think of someone more deserving of motherhood." _Except, perhaps, herself_ , but that was irrelevant now. "When are you due, Marylou?" she asked hurriedly. "Wow, that rhymed," Mary-Louise giggled, and Valerie soon joined her.

"September of 2019, the 11th I believe" Marylou beamed at Valerie.

Valerie smiled as if the sun came out and kissed Mary-Louise's forehead. The redhead was usually never much for giving or receiving physical contact, but time alone had broadened her horizons and, besides, this was her sister and her new little niece or nephews, maybe one of each. Once Nora came back, she greeted Valerie warmly and the trio talked for hours, catching up and theorizing about the future. Valerie departed late that evening, and Mary-Louise was discharged with the proper medication soon after.

Upon arriving home, Marylou trekked upstairs to what was formerly an office space for the previous owners.

"I think this would be a magnificent nursery," she smiled. "All we need to do is spruce it up."

"I think we can manage that," Nora laughed and with a kiss sent her ladylove to bed.


	6. Milestone

Mary-Louise had recently entered the 15th week of her pregnancy. The pair had grown out of the "too scared to be happy" phase but had not elected on telling anyone outside of the family. Of course, this meant the only ones who knew were the wives and Valerie. Nora had even returned to spooning Mary-Louise in bed, although the taller blonde was almost always the larger spoon. A 21st-century practice they had taken a liking to.

It was mid-morning on a Saturday when Marylou repeatedly and relentlessly nudged Nora until she awoke from her slumber.

"What is it, darling?"

There was a light in Mary-Louise Fairchild's eyes that neither had seen in quite a long time. Her eyes shone with a pride and anticipation of which kind neither was terribly accustomed, a happiness reserved mainly for big events like weddings or the welcoming of newborn babies, or making new friends.

"Nora, I…" she hesitated for a moment. "I think I'm showing."

She pulled up her pajama shirt to just below her bosom and pressed back the flesh just above and below her abdomen, smiling like a child at Disney World.

"Do you see it?"

"Marylou…" Nora cautioned.

"You don't see it?" She pouted. "Surely it is there!"

Nora got out of bed, rubbing her tired eyes until all the sleep was gone from them, and knelt in front of her expectant wife. The perk of having enhanced senses was being able to sense things like this. Nora placed a hand on Mary-Louise's belly, rubbing up and down its surface as if it would somehow provide an answer her eyes could not.

"Please tell me you see it. Please."

"Turn to the side."

Marylou eagerly did as instructed and, by God, Nora saw a little bit of a bump in her wife's belly.

Mary-Louise's pregnancy was most definitely showing. Nora looked up at her companion, eyes shining happily, as the statuesque blonde squealed and bounced up and down like an excited puppy. Nora kissed the bump. Once. Twice. Three times for luck before standing and kissing Mary-Louise, both of them practically crying from happiness.

"We are going to be parents," they said in unison.


	7. Complications

The next morning, Mary-Louise was a nigh-inexhaustible ball of energy. She was whizzing around the house like a speed demon despite Nora's insistence that using their vampire abilities would harm the baby. Marylou and Valerie, who had not taken any convincing when it came to staying with them for the pregnancy's duration, thought otherwise so here they were. The expectant blonde bounced around the Fairchild house like a kid on Christmas Eve, cleaning and cleaning and cleaning to no end.

"Marylou, please rest!" Nora protested after a full morning of such behavior with no end in sight.

"I refuse," came the blonde's own protest during one of her super-speed trips upstairs. Nora followed her wife everywhere she went.

The bathroom: spotless.

The kitchen: spotless.

Their bedroom: spotless.

The current-office/soon-to-be nursery: spotless.

Every damn hallway and wall: spotless.

It wasn't even noon and the house was already clean from top to bottom. And then came the fatigue. Mary-Louise crashed on the couch at 12:07 and was asleep by 12:16. Nora and Valerie stood over the slumbering woman and laughed to themselves.

"Valerie," Nora perked up after the pair had regained their composure. "May I speak to you frankly?"

"Of course you may, sister, is something the matter?"

"The only others to conceive a child despite their supernatural natures are Niklaus Mikaelson and Hayley Marshall. Niklaus is currently MIA and that child is god-knows-where."

"You fear for Mary-Louise."

"Of course I do! Wouldn't you? This is our fourth attempt at having a child and she has never been pregnant for this long. What if something happens to one or both of them? I could not bear it."

"She is nearly halfway through the pregnancy, Nora. Have you discussed such fears with her?"

"I did once, but I thought it stupid and unnecessary especially when we had come so far."

"And you believe what exactly?" A curious furrow appeared on Valerie's brow.

"I believe," Nora gulped, "that Marylou will become a bit too excited and lose the child. We've made a pact to not feed- not from the source, anyway- and it has grown difficult for the both of us to keep to, but I sense such a diet may prove disadvantageous to her and/or the child."

"Ah." It all made sense now, why she was so clingy this morning and why she hovered constantly ever since Valerie arrived. "I can understand your sentiments. Shall we leave her?"

As if on cue, Mary-Louise began snoring.

"I take that as a yes," Nora giggled.

"She's always been the most awful snorer," Valerie noted.

This prompted another outburst of laughter from the duo, loud enough to wake the slumbering blonde. Mary-Louise's eyes changed to a dark crimson as they and the veins below them filled with blood.

"Mary-Louise?"

The woman did not respond but dashed outside.

Before the brunette and redhead could react, there was a bone-chilling shriek from outside.

Nora and Valerie dashed outside, only to be frozen on their front porch. Frozen, not by magic but my shock and fear at the sight before them:

Mary-Louise, blood splattered all over her, ripping into the neck of one of their human friends and drinking her dry. When she was finished, the blonde most unceremoniously deposited the corpse at her feet.

"What? The baby was hungry."

Marylou walked over the body and strode back into the house as if nothing had occurred.

Nora and Valerie remained outside, unsure as to how to respond. They had seen Mary-Louise Fairchild feed when deprived of human blood for too long a stretch. While she could be vicious, she was always the embodiment of grace and poise even as she ripped some unsuspecting individual apart. This was not the Mary-Louise Fairchild the pair had known for almost two centuries.

This person was dangerous, feral. Almost unrecognizable.

"It appears we may indeed have a problem," Nora's voice dropped to nearly a whisper as she stood stock still, gazing after her wife. Or the person that was once her wife, she did not know anymore. Truth be told, neither did Valerie.


End file.
